Steven Pressfield's Blog, page 127

Prologue To A Proposal

A couple of years ago, I read the perfect explanation to give aspiring writers about the importance of putting in their 10,000 hours perfecting their craft before calling in every favor they can exploit to get their manuscript/screenplay/proposal into the hands of an agent/editor/publisher/studio executive etc.  It was written by a professional screenwriter, Josh Olson
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To Propose or Not to Propose

Posted from the road, Jacksonville NC:
I'm reading Shawn's Friday posts about book proposals in our "What It Takes" series. I love 'em. They're educational for me too. Until I read Shawn's first post, I didn't know what a book proposal was. Until he showed me one a couple of months ago, I had never seen
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Death in the Afternoon

The following doesn't really fit under the heading of War Stories, but it's so great I'm compelled to make it today's post anyway. I'm copying this piece now from a yellowing, typewriter-pecked page I've kept with me for years. If technically it isn't about war, it's certainly from a man who wrote masterfully about that subject
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Where to Start

So, you have an incredible idea.  You are a devotee of a particular slice of history, be it in music, politics, the Civil War, psychology, business, sports, or any other wedge of potentially popular nonfiction. You want to write a book about it, but you have no idea of how to write the proposal that
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On Research, Part Two

I got an e-mail a few weeks ago from Jeff Wills, who is writing an historical novel and was curious about how I did research. I promised I would answer in this space as soon as the launch of The Profession was over. So … here goes:
JW: My question is about your method of research
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Hector and Andromache

Here is one of the most poignant and tragic scenes (at least in its outcome, foretold but unstated here) in all of epic poetry. From Homer's Iliad, in the Richmond Lattimore translation from the University of Chicago Press, this is the moment on the battlements of Troy, when the Trojans' great hero Hector has left
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Publication Day

I have a recurring dream. In the dream I'm invited to climb into the back seat of a limo that's about to drive off to someplace fabulous (sometimes the dream is about a fancy home or a fantastic restaurant). The dream always ends badly. It's trying to tell me something.
Publication day—which was yesterday for The
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The First Modern War

The Peloponnesian War was the clash between Athens and Sparta that lasted, as the oracle foretold, "thrice nine years," and ended in the defeat of Athens and the destruction of the Golden Age of her democracy. Students today run screaming when they're assigned to read Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War. They shouldn't. It's a
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Join Us For A Night of Bassoon

Steve Martin opened his performance with Steep Canyon Rangers by thanking the audience for being there—saying that he knew asking us to join him for a night of bluegrass was like Jerry Seinfeld asking his fans to join him for a night of bassoon. It wasn't what any of us expected—or necessarily wanted—from him, and
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Crossing Over

First things first: our Kindle and Nook winners from last week's un-Contest. Congrats to Lou Sancio and Rachel Hope, who will get their new eReaders ASAP—and to the six other lucky devils listed below, who will each get a signed first edition of The Profession. Winners, I'll e-mail you all personally and we can confer
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